Official: Radio transmissions distracted Amtrak engineer

NEW YORK (AP) — The Amtrak engineer whose speeding train jumped the tracks along a curve in Philadelphia last year, killing eight people, was distracted by radio transmissions, a U.S. official briefed on the investigation said Monday.

Engineer Brandon Bostian told investigators three days after the May 12, 2015, crash that he recalled radio traffic that night from a commuter train operator who said a rock had shattered his windshield.

The official was unable to say whether those were the transmissions that distracted Bostian, but the engineer spoke about no other radio chatter when interviewed by federal investigators, according to material released previously by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB is expected to recommend that engineers be retrained about distractions and also recommend the city wait for ambulances to take injured people to the hospital at mass-casualty incidents.

Bostian told investigators he was concerned about the welfare of the commuter train's engineer and "a little bit concerned" for his own safety, but he never indicated in either NTSB interview that his train had been struck too.